grocery Union on strike

I know this has been up for a while, i know ralphs just caved in, but is there any news on safeway/vons?

also, i wouldn't mind hearing your opinion. what do you think about the unions, them going on strike and stuff related to that.

i think that unions are pretty dumb and i don't think i'd be in one if i had an opportunity. only because they "protect the people from capitalism (forgive my spelling, i'm too tired to care)". but... aren't we (United States) built on Capitalism? if we were built on that, and the unions are against that... then aren't they like haters of what this country stands for?

it seems to me that a lot of people think that America was built for opportunity, where if you come here, pay your taxes you get these rites and ther's equality and all that jazz right? but i keep on seeing that a lot of people forget that living here doesn't give you the right to do/get what you want. you have to make it yourself, i mean... no matter what your backround is, no matter how poor you are, you can still make something out of it. right? that's what schools are for, and from what i hear on the news, no matter where you go to school (high school i mean) you can manage to get to some college depending on the grades you have. yes i know there are some problems with this idea because of the mentally ill people, but aside from them, you can go to college and make a fairly good pay, and you could have started from the ghettos really. you can manage to get a nice house and able to support a family with some nice things not the best, but nice.

okay sorry i'm drifting here... back to the union. from what i hear, the union went on strike because the medical went up and they had to pay something pretty cheap for checkups and stuff like that instead of getting it for free. the union seems to say it like the "evil" big buisness grocery stores are cheating them or something, but really, thr frickin prices went up! alright? so the union goes on strike cuz they have to pay for medical, and then the grocery stores will eventually give in and then raise the prices of products so they can cover the medical. ... from the looks of it, we the consumers have to pay (at least some) for their medical in the long run. so why should we pay for ours and then for theirs?

i'm just a 10th grader so give me a break, i only hear what they show on tv and what i hear on internet and from what other people tell me.

Let's just say that the gap between incomes is getting greater and greater...not everyone can nor will "go to college" and end up making 75 grand a year, and they're probably aren't enough jobs to go around for that kind of pay anyway. This is a huge issue...that of the middle class being squeezed out from both ends, as there are more service oriented jobs out there than ever before that pay the bare minimum and have few benefits. Unions are important to keep a living wage for labor...labor needs to be respected and treated fairly so the people that perform such functions can afford to live and continue to provide.

The issues at the supermarkets are more than just paying a little extra for health benefits. There's the two tier system for hiring workers that is on the table...typically, if one gets in enough new workers at lower wages with less benefits, the senior workers will start to find themselves being "downsized" and the lower paid ones will move into those vacant positions...it's a tactic to improve the shareholders' pockets and the profit margin...and screws workers in the end.

The days of companies really giving a damn about their workers are over...fresh meat is always available, and the lower the wages the higher the profit. It hurts everyone in the end...except, of course, those at the highest levels of management and the shareholders.

I work in an auto plant owned by a Japanese company. I do not want a union at my job right now, but I thank God for the UAW. The only reason they are paying me $25 an hour is so we won't vote in the union and they'll have to start paying more like $26 an hour. Our pay stays two steps behing the pay of the union plants. If the big 3 weren't union, we'd all be making minimum wage. I know on occasion excessive union demands can break a small company, but if there were no unions I don't think we'd have much of an economy. If nobody is making any money, then nobody is buying the products. Then the rich people quit getting richer and can't figure out why. And the poor people starve. Where was I going with this?? Oh yea, they take away a little at a time, no raise this year, higher medical copay next year, paying for more of your medical insurance the year after that. Eventually, your good job isn't any better than the job you had in high school, but you can't seem to remember ever losing anything major. While I don't see a need for a union at my job, I will always keep an open mind. And, I always support the union workers around here when they strike. Gotta keep the man in check!

I grew up in the backwoods of Tennessee. I finished High School (unlike my parents) got a job working for Nissan Motor Manufacturing making Nissan Cars (No Union). I got into college (MTSU) while working 40+ hours at Nissan. I left Nissan in '98 worked as a programmer for a small company for 5 years( I graduated from college will working here) and just a month ago I got a job working for Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a Health System Software Engineer. I now make $75000 a year. I did all this on my own with no help. Thank you America.

Anyone who wants to can go look through the politics threads to read mine, and others views on universal health care. We pretty much did that one to death a couple times already.

The union matter is a different story however, and I would argue that unions are just as much capitalists as the owners are. Both are trying to get the best for themselves. I fail to see how that makes the unions socialist.

And if you don't think unions are necessary, perhaps a history lesson is in order. There are others here far more eloquent than I on this matter, but the right to organize in a union was a reaction to the horrible working conditions and pay that employers were offering. Without unions there would be no middle class, just a handful of super rich, and a whole lot of poor.

Read The Jungle. Besides making you never want to eat sausage again, it might give you an idea of what working conditions were like that triggered the organization of workers into unions. They didn't do it to be socialist, they did it because they were getting taken advantage of every which way they turned.

Originally posted by Bunzi2k4
but... aren't we (United States) built on Capitalism? if we were built on that, and the unions are against that... then aren't they like haters of what this country stands for?

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Capitalism and Socialism are both just theories. They work 'in an ideal world', where all people are 'honest' and hard working.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, so you need to balance things out.

Originally posted by ooartist People need to quit this socialism crap.

I grew up in the backwoods of Tennessee. I finished High School (unlike my parents) got a job working for Nissan Motor Manufacturing making Nissan Cars (No Union). I got into college (MTSU) while working 40+ hours at Nissan. I left Nissan in '98 worked as a programmer for a small company for 5 years( I graduated from college will working here) and just a month ago I got a job working for Vanderbilt University Medical Center as a Health System Software Engineer. I now make $75000 a year. I did all this on my own with no help. Thank you America.
ooartist

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Good for you, nothing wrong with that. Who hauls your garbage every week?

I am an employee of the Dierberg's in St. Louis in the strike that just ended earlier this month. I am currently on student leave for college, but I work there over the summers. While I cannot pretend to understand the emotions of the past weeks for my friends back in St. Louis, I can say that the strike was being proposed all summer and was used only as a last resort. A few of the cashiers at my location had college degrees as did their spouses and both worked full-time jobs at businesses like Boeing and still were unable to pay their expenses and so they had taken part time jobs. Others were working in the union to subsidize insufficient pension and SS cheques. Others like me were attending high school or college in St. Louis and just needed to be able to afford a car and a social life. I would say that less than half the employees working under the union actually had only one full-time position at the store. Of those people, college was not really an option because of the high cost of supporting a family and the skyrocketing costs of higher education. ooartist I respect the work you went through to get where you are, and while my parents both have college educations they have chosen to go into the ministry and so I must bear the cost of my education as well. I am attending a state college this year, and it is becoming more and more clear to me that my place is at an art institute but cost has been prohibitive. Due to the economy, scholarship funds are scarcely available even to someone with my abundant accomplishments and talents.

Anyway, back to the topic, some people are stuck in the loop of needing the grocery industry for a living, and cannot afford any additional expenses as they already have extremely tight budgets. I'm very glad to hear that the union has won the strike.

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